New Poll Shows Minor Post-Debate Bump For Clinton

A new poll shows that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump remains in a tight race with Democrat Hillary Clinton after the first presidential debate.

Despite media pronouncements that Clinton was the winner of Monday night’s debate, she did not receive a bump in one of the first post-debate polls to emerge.

The latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released Friday shows that in a head-to-head contest, Clinton leads Trump by 43 percent to 38 percent. This is “roughly the same advantage she has held all month,” reported Reuters. Another 19 percent said they would not pick either candidate.

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When the poll asked about all four candidates seeking the White House, Clinton was supported by 42 percent of those responding, while Trump received 38 percent support, Libertarian Gary Johnson 3 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein 3 percent.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Clinton doing better than in other post-debate polls.

The USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times Daybreak tracking poll, which tracks Americans’ support for the presidential candidates on a daily basis, showed that as of Friday, Trump is leading Clinton 47.1 percent to 41.7 percent. In this poll, Trump rose 1 percentage point since Monday’s debate while Clinton fell by the same margin.

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The Real Clear Politics average of polls taken over the past two weeks shows Clinton leading Trump 47.3 percent to 44.4 percent.

“The impact of Monday’s debate is still small,” wrote Cameron Easley for Morning Consult. “Just 9 percent of voters said the debate changed their minds about who they will be voting for, while about eight out of 10 said it wouldn’t matter.”

Fellow Republicans are urging Trump to make the second debate a game-changer.

“People know who Hillary is — they’ve seen her and heard about her for 30 years,” said Sean Spicer, chief strategist for the Republican National Committee. “And what needs to be done next is that he is seen as the element of change.”

However debates in and of themselves are not likely to alter the campaign, noted NBC’s Dante Chinni.

“Considering the high-stakes moments that the debates create one might expect them to matter more to the bottom line, but remember debates happen late — very late — in the campaign,” he wrote.

“By the time those candidates hit the stage most voters have seen and heard from them over and over again on TV, online, in the newspaper and on the radio. Voters’ images of the candidates are usually well-formed,” he added.